Eternal Echoes
by absolkagome
Summary: When Sakaki's parents are killed by Shadow Pokemon, she and her Eevee must take to the road to forge a new life for themselves.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. But neither do any of you, so ha!  
  
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BACKGROUND 3 Years Ago (and a little before that)  
  
Sakaki Asakawa was seven years old when she got her first Pokemon. She was born in the town of Pyrite, a run-down city of criminals and street gangs, but her father's family had insisted on them moving to Phenac city, a beautiful place filled with water, a haven in the middle of the desert region of Orre. Sakaki's parents had thought many times about getting her a Pokemon companion. Her grandparents, however, were totally against the idea. They believed that the creatures were dangerous, especially to a young child like her. They wanted her to grow up with proper manners, and become a respectable lady. That's not what society had planned, though, because when she was barely two the stock market crashed, causing her grandparents to lose most of their money. They could no longer support Sakaki and her parents, so the family returned to Pyrite. As Sakaki grew older, she lost her memories of living in Phenac. What she gained though, was a strong fascination for Pokemon. The first battle she saw, she was hooked. What Sakaki wanted more than anything was a Pokemon of her own, but she knew her parents couldn't afford it so she never asked for one. On her seventh birthday, her family had a special dinner like they usually did, with all Sakaki's favorite foods. Afterwards, Sakaki's parents found her staring wistfully out the window, at a trainer with a Noctowl on his shoulder. "Sakaki? Is everything okay? Did you like dinner?" they questioned her. She turned around, surprised to see them standing there. "Huh? Oh, oh yeah, everything was great as usual!! Thank you so much!" she replied. "All right then. As long as you're happy." Her parents smiled as they walked away. But as soon as they turned away, their smiles faded. They both knew what she really wanted. A Pokemon was the one thing that would make her truly happy, yet it was the one thing she refused to ask for. It was the one thing she deserved, and the one thing it seemed like she would never have...  
  
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One lonely day in October, Sakaki sat on the floor watching her mother prepare dinner. She leaned back against the couch and sighed. It had rained all yesterday, and most of today. She heard it start in again, the soft rushing of water on the roof. The storm made her think of water-type attacks, Waterfall, Water Gun, Rain Dance... The door opened, letting in a soft chill and the scent of rain. Sakaki glanced over. Her father was home. "Hi, Daddy." Her mother turned around to greet him. "Hello, dear. How was work?" "Better than usual," he replied. He turned to his daughter and smiled. "Sakaki, can you come here a minute?" Sakaki looked up. As she walked over to him, he added, "I've got a friend here who would like to meet you." At hearing this, Sakaki's mother turned away from her cooking again to give him a puzzled look. There was obviously no other person in the room. Sakaki's father carefully handed her a... bundle of old rags? At this she looked at him suspiciously. "Well, go ahead. Open it! Oh, and be careful, don't hold it like that..." he instructed. Sakaki repositioned it so she had a better grip on it, and then slowly flipped back the rags covering the bundle. She stared at the lump of brown fur that appeared, only to find two shiny blue eyes staring back at her. She tripped backwards out of surprise, and the bundle landed in her lap. The small face once again poked out of the cloth. It questioned her. "Vee?" It took Sakaki a second to realize before a huge smile spread across her face. "Daddy! An Eevee!! You brought me my very own wonderful cute adorable sweet little Eevee!!!" She jumped up, hugging her dad and her Pokemon at the same time. "Thank you so much Daddy!!! You're the best!!!" Her father smiled as she stood back to look at the Eevee again. "Hey, you're all wet! Did you get stuck in the rain? You're cold too. A warm bath will fix that!" Sakaki ran off to take care of Eevee. Her father walked into the kitchen. "How did you get..." her mother began, only to be cut off. "When I was coming home from work, I heard someone yelling. I looked over and saw a man kicking the poor Pokemon, calling it stupid and useless. He took it down an alley, and I heard him saying something about where the trash belongs. He left without his Pokemon, so I went down the alley to see what he did with it. I found it buried in the dumpster. It surely would have died if I hadn't done something. Besides, you know how bad Sakaki wanted one of those. And these streets are getting more dangerous every day, it's good for her to have a Pokemon to protect her." "Well, I think you did the right thing," her mother replied. "That's the happiest I've ever seen our daughter." But there was no way of knowing for sure how long the happiness would last...  
  
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Sakaki and Eevee spent four happy years together. They were the best of friends, together every second of every day. Sakaki was still obsessed with anything to do with Pokemon, she battled every chance she got and dreamed of being a champion someday. Eevee wasn't very trusting at first, and always pushed himself to win because he remembered how he was abused last time he lost. The first time he lost with Sakaki as his trainer, he cowered away, fearing the worst. To his surprise, Sakaki just picked him up and hugged him, making sure he was okay and telling him not to worry, they would win next time. As soon as he heard that, he knew for sure that he could trust his new friend. After that, they became an almost-unbeatable team, because their battling was based on trust instead of punishment. Eevee tried his hardest, because he wanted to make his trainer proud. It was their dream to someday stand in the winner's circle... together. But only a few months after Sakaki turned 11, a tragedy occurred that would change their lives forever. It was a calm Saturday morning in April, Sakaki and Eevee had been watching battles on TV and were practicing attacks together. Her parents looked on from the kitchen. "Dear, please don't use Sand Attack in the living room..." Sakaki's mother mentioned as she sipped her coffee. Suddenly, a huge explosion sounded outside. Sakaki yelped in surprise as Eevee leaped into her arms. She ran to the kitchen. Her father instructed them and her mother to get down. They crouched behind the table as another explosion shook the ground. They could hear people yelling outside. There was a loud crack as their front door was busted in. A Houndoom and a Seviper, followed by two men in odd costumes, crawled in through the debris. Sakaki's dad turned to her and her mother. "I'll try and distract them. When they're away from the doorway, Run!! Don't worry about me, just get to safety. I love you both. You too, Eevee, please protect Sakaki." "Daddy, please don't go..." said Sakaki as her father turned away. "Please be safe!" whispered her mother. He stood up and ran to the living room. The two Pokemon were sniffing things out. The men looked up. "You! What do you know in regard to where we can find the strong Pokemon that live around here?" Sakaki's dad replied, " I don't know what you're talking about! Are you looking for one of the gangs that lives around here?" "Oh, this goes far beyond your little street gangs..." said one man. "He has no information for us! Kill him!!" the other man glanced at the Houndoom. Sakaki gasped as it clamped its jaws on her father's throat. She jumped up.  
  
"Stop it!! Eevee, use Quick Attack!" Eevee began running towards the Houndoom, only to be stopped by the Seviper. Both Pokemon stood there, waiting for their trainer's command. "Seviper, Poison Fang!" The snake Pokemon lunged at Eevee, who jumped up dodging the attack. Sakaki stared at the Seviper. It seemed to be emitting some kind of black aura, as did the Houndoom! There was something very wrong with these Pokemon... Sakaki's mother jumped up too. She began to run towards her husband. "Seviper!" The dark Pokemon's trainer commanded it again. "Eevee, Sand Atta- huh?" The giant black snake lunged right past Eevee. Sakaki turned around to see her mother, wrapped tightly in Seviper's grasp with its fangs bearing down on her neck. She turned her head again at the sound of her father choking. There was a stomach-turning crunch, and she looked up to see her father's throat being ripped out, and the Houndoom's muzzle covered in blood. She heard her mother gasp, "Sa- Sakaki... Run..." She would die a slower, but considerably less painful death as the Seviper injected its poison and slowly began to squeeze the air out of her lungs. Sakaki knew there was nothing she could do at this point, so she grabbed Eevee, shouted, "Mom! Daddy! I love you!" and began to run. "Hey, what about the runt with the Eevee?" asked the Seviper's trainer as he watched them run off. "Weak kid, weak Pokemon. We've got better things to do than chase them. Let 'em run..." The two men motioned to their Pokemon to follow as they joined up with their teammates outside to find out what the others had learned.  
  
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Sakaki and Eevee ran as far as they could out of town until they collapsed, exhausted and out of breath from running and crying. Sakaki sat there gasping for a minute, then sat up and tried to get a hold of herself. She and her Pokemon sat there in silence for a long time. Sakaki finally managed to look behind her. She could see black smoke, coming from the burning buildings. She squeezed her eyes shut, turned around and slowly opened them again. "E-Eevee. It's all over... everything gone..." "Vee." Eevee sadly agreed. "Well... guess it's just you and me now, buddy..." Sakaki picked up Eevee and slowly walked off toward the distant mountains. Nothing would be easy, from here on out. But she knew they would find a way to get by. Friends always do.  
  
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--Wow!! That was wayyy longer than I expected it to be! This was supposed to be just a paragraph or two of background information, but it ended up taking the whole first chapter! Kind of a prologue, I guess... Anyway, R+R, tell me what you think... By the way, thanks sooo much to you reviewers of my last story! You were all so nice, I'm glad you liked it! Um, chappy 2 up soon! (I promise things will get a little cheerier later on, but this is kind of a bittersweet story, so be warned!)— -- ~absolkagome~ -- 


	2. The first step of a Long Journey

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Do you think they'd sue me if I didn't put a disclaimer? What, do the Pokemon lawyers just surf the internet all day looking for fanfics that don't have disclaimers? What's up with that!  
  
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Chapter 2: The First Step of a Long Journey  
  
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Sakaki gazed out on the dark, muggy city in it's early morning hours. She had lived here, in an underground city known as THE UNDER for three long years. Ever since the tragedy in Pyrite, she could not bear to return to the city she'd lived in mostly all of her life. She had wandered into the mountains and found an old elevator that had taken her here. She soon learned that she was directly underneath Pyrite. THE UNDER's pokemart had taken her in, and she worked there in return for the small one-room apartment above the shop. Her amber-green eyes turned from the window, to settle their gaze on the sleeping body of her Umbreon. There was a small forest in the mountains, and they occasionally went out at night to train there. Eevee had evolved while battling a trainer's rogue Golem, and Sakaki was extremely proud of her new Pokemon. "Hey. Umbreon... umbry... wake up!" The sleepy Pokemon slowly opened his eyes. "Today's the big day, remember?" Umbreon gazed at his trainer. She wore a form fitting black t-shirt and jean shorts. She had a short, tattered teal piece of fabric tied around her waist, and a bandana of the same see-through fabric tied around her neck. Her shoulder length dark brown hair had faint reddish highlights. Sakaki was fourteen now, and had decided that it was time to get out of here. Umbreon agreed with her that they needed to get out there and do something important, rather than sitting around tending to a shop all day. He got up, stretched, and glanced around. Since they didn't really have anything, Sakaki had tidied up the room and they were ready to be on their way. They walked downstairs and said good morning to the shopkeeper, who was busy fixing the displays in time to open the shop. "Sakaki! Umbreon! So, today's the day you leave, huh?" said the shopkeeper. "Yeah, it's been great here, but we wanna see more of the world." Sakaki replied. "Ah, adventurous young souls..." the shopkeeper mused. "Well, we fixed up our room. We should get going..." Sakaki said. "Thank you for letting us stay here." "Oh, Sakaki, wait a second!" said the shopkeeper, as he went into the back room. He emerged carrying a package, and handed it to her. It was a small denim backpack that contained a few potions and antidotes, some food, money, and a bag of Pokemon treats. "I know you like to travel light, but this stuff should get you started. Oh, and one more thing..." He handed her a Poke ball. "I found this in the back room. Wild Pokemon are almost impossible to come by around here, but you can do more with this than I can." Sakaki clipped it on her belt loop. "Thank you so much for everything!! How can I ever repay you?" The shopkeeper replied, "Don't worry about it. It's the least I could do for a loyal employee! Run along now. Good luck, and if you ever need anything don't be afraid to call or stop by. You know the shop's number." "Thank you again so much. I guess this is goodbye then..." Sakaki slung the backpack over her shoulder. "I better see you back here someday! Goodbye, you two." Sakaki turned around one last time to wave to the shopkeeper, and she could have sworn there was a tear in his eye. She looked down at Umbreon and smiled. With that, they were on their way.  
  
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"Aah! It's so bright!" Sakaki shielded her eyes from the sun. They hadn't seen real sunlight in a long time. "Bre..." Umbreon tried to shake it off. "Heh! Guess we'll just have to get used to it again, huh?" Sakaki smiled at her Pokemon. They had gotten down the mountain, and were walking off into the desert when they noticed something up ahead. "Wonder what that is." Said Sakaki. It was coming towards them, and they could just make out the figure of a person. "I didn't expect to see another person so soon!" They went up to greet it, but the man wasn't friendly at all and immediately called out a Golbat to battle. "What do you want, kid? I'll slaughter that puny Pokemon of yours!" "Grrr... If it's a battle you want, it's you who's gonna get slaughtered! Umbreon, Quick Attack!" The trainer commanded his Golbat to fly. Umbreon's attack missed, but Sakaki's Pokemon was smart. As Golbat swooped in for the attack, Umbreon tackled it from underneath, knocking it out of the sky, and KO'd it using a bite attack. The Golbat's trainer was pissed now, he recalled the Golbat and sent out another Pokemon. It was a Sandslash, also easily KO'd by Umbreon. Sakaki and Umbreon were celebrating their victory when the trainer sent out his last Pokemon. Sakaki and Umbreon were ready to battle, but when they saw the Pokemon he had sent out they instantly froze. It was a Bayleef, simple enough. But it's dark aura was the same as that of the Pokemon that had killed Sakaki's parents.  
  
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--So, how do you like chapter two so far? Kind of a cliffhanger there, huh? Well, you'll just have to live in torment until I update. LOL. Anyway, a few reviews... you said it needed spaces when people talk or whatever, did I do it right this time? Oh, Dragon, a Sakaki is a kind of Japanese tree. Glad you like the name! ^^ So, updates soon then.— -- ~absolkagome~ -- 


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